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6.2.3.
Translation of clausal ellipsis
The kind of clausal ellipsis found in our data is the one that involves interrogative clauses which are
categorized by Halliday and Hasan (1976, pp. 206–215) under rejoinders to seek confirmation and
have the form of interrogative clauses with propositional ellipsis, i.e., question tags at the end of
a declarative or imperative clause. All occurrences of clausal ellipsis except one are translated into
tag questions that involve substitution to refer to the previous elliptical statement in the ST.
(25)
ST: A. My daughter Jane is a splendid dancer, is she not?
B. She is indeed (
Pride and Prejudice)
TT: A. ؟كلذك سيلأ ،صقرلا ي
ف ةلهذم )نياج( ي رننبا (My daughter [Jane] is an amazing dancer,
is it not as such?)
B.
ديكأتلاب
(certainly)
In this example, there are two cases of clausal ellipsis occurring in rejoinders where the complement
is elided. In the first one, the translator adopted a direct translation by a fixed Arabic short
interrogative structure
سيلأ
كلذك
(is it not as such). This is a formal correspondence approach,
a procedure to preserve the rhetorical purpose of assertion. The TT features a substitution of
the previous clause although according to traditional Arabic grammar, كلذك (as such)
is a prepositional phrase that refers to an omitted phrase indicating the previous clause.
The interpretation of the first example can be
ي رننبا
)نياج(
ةلهذم
ي
ف
،صقرلا
تسيلأ
يه
ةلهذم
ي
ف
؟صقرلا
(My daughter [Jane] is an amazing dancer, is she not an amazing dancer?). The TL tag question deletes
she and is of the ST, making it a more general question that applies to any kind of statement. The
translation could abandon the ST structure and merge both parts (the statement and the tag
question) into one interrogative in Arabic that is shorter and more natural:
تسيلأ
ي رننبا
)نياج(
ةلهذم
ي
ف
؟صقرلا
(Is my daughter [Jane] not an amazing dancer?).
The second case of clausal ellipsis occurs in the response she is indeed. Whereas an affirmative
response of معن (yes) could be given, the translation provided instead an Arabic counterpart
of ‘indeed’ which is part of an elliptical sentence. The TT deletes she is and involves ellipsis
of the clause
يه
ةلهذم
ي
ف
صقرلا
where the full response is
ديكأتلاب
يه
ةلهذم
ي
ف
ا
صقرل
(Indeed she is
an amazing dancer). What helped in having ellipsis here, creating successful communication,
is the information that can be retrieved from the previous line (index). It is worth noting that this is
one case (of only two) of ellipsis used in the subtitles examined here (see example 28). However,
this is optional as the translation could have given a full sentence, but for brevity and condensity,
ellipses is opted for.
In the two examples below, the questions in the STs are rejoinders to the statements that aim at
providing the rhetorical purpose of assertion or provide confirmation. Subtitles translated the tag
Journal of Audiovisual Translation, volume 2, issue 1
148
questions as كلذك سيلأ (is it not as such) which is the most common form of translation for tag
questions used by translators, whereas حيحص (true/right) in example 28 below is a less common
translation:
(26)
ST: She gave up her life, didn't she? (Possession)
TT: ؟كلذك سيلأ ،اهتايح نع تلخت دقل (She gave up her life, is it not as such?)
(27)
ST: This is a pleasant fiction, isn't it? (Gladiator)
TT: ؟كلذك سيلأ ،ليمج ليخت اذه (This is a beautiful imagination, is it not as such?)
The function of tag questions is to keep a channel of communication open (Halliday & Hasan, 1976,
p. 207). The unified translation using the interrogative structure contributes to the cohesiveness of
the TTs, conveys the meanings intended by the questions and adds an element of assertion, which.
However, adopting one interrogative structure in TTs to correspond to the function of two different
tag questions in the STs results in levelling out the TTs, i.e., providing one uniform translation for all
kinds of tag questions.
(28)
ST: You’re looking rather well, Smith. Been enjoying yourself, have you? (The New
World)
TT: ؟حيحص ،كتقوب عتمتست تنك ،ثيمس اي بخب ودبت (You look well, Smith. You have been
enjoying your time, right?)
Here, the operator been and the verb in the progressive enjoying are omitted in the ST tag question.
The subtitle corresponds to that feature and achieves the cohesive function in the TL. The word حيحص
(true/right) is used as an interrogative element to compensate for not having a corresponding TL
structure for the English tag question, referring anaphorically to what has been said earlier. This is,
then, another case of clausal ellipsis in the TT with the full sentence being
حيحصأ
تنك
عتمتست
؟كتقوب
(Is it right that you have been enjoying your time?) (see example 25). The subtitle lacks
an interrogative particle such as hamza. However, it is deleted due to frequent use, which is closer
to spoken variety. We believe that this approach makes such TL structure recommended for
the subtitling of small talk and casual conversation. The translation here has the merit of being
shorter than the tag question form كلذك سيلأ (is it not as such) used in other subtitles.
The examples of clausal ellipsis in English are all tag questions, which is a grammatical structure
specific to the SL. Such structure is originally uncommon or almost non-existent in the TL.
2
This is rather modern usage in Arabic, mainly as a by-product of translation and in response to SL
formulation, by providing a calque translation. However, in Arabic it can fall under ريرقتلا ماهفتسا
2
In the Arabic premodern subcorpus, with more than 9 million words, there is only one occurrence
of
سيلأ
كلذك
(is it not as such MASC) and only two of
سيلأ
ت
كلذك
(is it not as such
FEM). See http://
arabicorpus.byu.edu
The Translation of Substitution and Ellipsis in Arabic Subtitling
149
(assertion interrogatives), which is about inviting the addressee to acknowledge and recognize what
the speaker believes in (Al-Zarkašhy, n.d., vol. 2, p. 331; see also Saḥraoui, 2005, p. 163).
While the examples are translatable, they do not reflect the same rhetorical purpose as the ones
in the SL. Thus, translators opted for formal correspondence to preserve the rhetorical purpose of
assertion.
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